Giving back: Tennessee Edd

Tennessee Edd, giving back to the community and making a difference for so many!

Chris and I were lucky enough to meet Edd Bissell our first day in La Cruz. On the oceanfront and poolside, he extended his hand and with a hearty handshake, he says, “I’m Aayehhd, where y’all from”. A bond was formed instantly as he shared what brought him to this area, how he now calls it home and how he’d be surprised if we didn’t end up doing so too! It’s been six years now, well, I guess he knew things we didn’t.

Edd tells you how it is whether you want to hear it or not. He’s a self-confessed, Redneck and proud of it. He makes me laugh out loud when we visit, with his emails and on facebook. Edd’s true self, however, has been revealed through his kindness to one teeny, Mexican community or Rancho as they call it; San Quintin. For as long as I’ve known him no conversation is complete without a plea for help for his town. It started with the school; he just wanted to see kids get an education. Then as they graduated he wanted more for them ~ to go on to higher education… and it’s happening!

Edd quickly realized the old saying, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime” was pertinent with his ‘project’ as he calls it. Successful at accumulating donations of clothes, computers and even money, Edd realized people had to ‘earn’ what they received so he helped the kids set up a thrift shop. Most of what is donated goes into the thrift shop; the locals purchase their needs. The profits go to the kids to go to school. The children’s education is being extended to more than just book learning as Edd makes sure they have a part in all that goes into running a store; the renovation, the economics, the sales, etc.

Woot, woot Edd, you rock!

Enough of my knowledge of what Edd is doing… I asked him to tell me what inspired him and what keeps him going.

In Edd’s words:

“I was going by myself one day to Sayulita and Patricia my cleaning gal hitched a ride to her parents place in San Quintin (where she was raised). On the way she said that Alonso (her husband) wanted to build and move back to the village and so did her 3 kids BUT she was not keen on the idea because of the location AND primarily the lack within the village school. I told her to let me see it. She did and it was less than pitiful in my opinion. The schoolyard was atrocious, inside was equally bad, soooooooo it started there with paint, a broom and a mop! Alonso spearheaded the efforts because I was REALLY an outsider.

The village school falls into the Conafe Rural School System (800 of the 1100 schools in the State of Nayarit are Conafe) and it is my understanding as of now we are the ONLY Conafe school in the Valle area, all others are private or public. Luis was the teacher the second year I helped out the school. I had asked for a bilingual teacher and he was IT in the whole system; lucky for both of us I suppose.” In fact Edd encouraged Luis to go back to school and become a lawyer… well if he didn’t just go and do that!! Congrats to Luis for all his hard work and much success!

Cindy’s note:

When I first heard Edd refer to “His Mexican” I was horrified. Now I realize it’s a thing of beauty. Luis, Edd’s Mexican, and Edd have a phenomenal relationship. I bet neither of them knows who actually helps the other more. An absolute win-win, bond!

Back to Edd speaking about Luis:

“With him, I sort of was able to turn the school from a baby-sitting facility into something of better value — BUT it was difficult!! To start with there was NO parental support. NONE!!! And after sixth grade the full school expense is on the parents/kids, there is NO government help. We pay school FEES (yep it costs THEM to go to school) bus fare (yep — ride to school on the bus daily), books, pencils, paper, etc ~ and try to give them money for any extra curricular activities that might come up. We do NOT have the $$$$$ to pay for their food. YET!!

I have two more projects going;

1 – Juan Carlos has a mentally challenged boy ~ Delmer, he evidently had a stroke. We help with much of his medical needs.

2 – And I have taken on the Juan Carlos family (3 girls/3 boys) as a personal project ~ their place is very clean BUT I call it Poverty Clean, below poverty actually. I have gathered up things like fans, toilets, household items, etc PLUS bought several 100’s of dollars in mortar/plywood/nails/etc for him and he is upgrading his own place ~ he said “I have no ‘ideas’ ~ you give to me the ideas and I will do them” — and so far he has done a GREAT job. He’s proud of where he chipped out a hole in the wall and is installing one of the windows donated ~ plus the mirror he hung ~ plus he spread mortar on the walls and he has painted (donated paint) the boys room. Then he did the girls room! I took him to a local hotel and let him look at the concrete forms for beds/chairs/closets/chairs/etc ~ he said I CAN DO THESE — that will be our next project in the house.”

There’s so much more Edd isn’t saying that I glean from visiting with him and from his updates, currently:

He’s meeting with 6 ESL teachers from Jefferson County, Tennessee who will again travel back to San Quintin to teach the kids over their Spring Break.

We have 7 kids ABOVE the 6th grade
[Conafee or Rural School System school in the Village ] in school in Bucerias Secondary and Preparatory
Last year we had the FIRST kid who lives in the Village to graduate from High School; we have had one other student who went to live with Grandparents in another State to graduate several years ago.
After they finish the 6th grade in the Conafee School there is NO funding to help the student on transportation [ they catch the public transportation bus each a.m. at 6:15 a.m. ] All Students who go past the 6th grade either go to Sayulita or Bucerias to go further in school.
Our goals are to provide school supplies/uniforms/basic tools for hygiene [toothbrushes, toothpaste, extra clothing, etc]
Also try to come up with games to play in school; keep computers in the school for their use [there is NOT Internet Service ]
We TRY to involve parental participation to keep school / toilets / etc CLEAN but it is a HUGE problem — so we sort of try to get the kids to keep grounds / inside the school / etc clean
Teachers are provided by the Conafee School System BUT the parents have required to provide meals and a place for them to stay during the school week. And THAT is hard to keep going also.It cost approximately $100 – $500 PER student per school year for transportation, school supplies , school uniforms, some extra curricular activities — AND we try to watch/see grades of each student to insure that they ARE attending school on a regular basis. We also require that the students provide their bus receipts to ensure that they are riding the bus twice a day. We also TRY to find them jobs after school i.e. Mega Commercial as bag boys/girls where they work for TIPS only.

And back to the family ~ Father, Juan Carlos worked at Villa Amor Del Mar for the first 4 years of our Boutique Hotel. He was a hard and happy worker and we were glad to give him an opportunity; he proved over and above that he deserved it.

Watching Edd’s success reminds me how we can all make a difference in another persons life. If an old gringo, with a drawl and absolutely no Spanish language skills can do all I stated above and more… consider one small thing you can do today… and tomorrow… and next week… and, and, and!

As I close, it’s gotta be Edd’s words.

“The school is well — kids are fine — all is welllllll”

AND

When asked what keeps him going, Edd says, “All in a days work”!